CompuServe Messages

Hi, Russ– Green-fluorescing agate is common, but I have seen no orange-fluorescent agate (one orange-fluor. quartz crystal, which is uncommon). Are those local specimens, or did they come to your flower bed from far away? Purple fluorescences are always suspect, as they are likely to be a reflection of the purple light a UV lamp puts out (perfect filters are not practical if they exist at all). Does it change a lot when the specimen is rotated under the lamp? If it vanishes when a piece of ordinary glass is held between shortwave lamp and specimen, it is a real shortwave fluorescence. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to rule in or out a longwave purple fluorescence. I hope "blinded by the light" does not mean you have been looking into the UV lamp – at least I figure if you "sun"burned your eyeballs, you would not be delaying in sending the lamp to your mother-in-law. –Doug